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sociation with different gods or goddesses (such
as Bes and Hathor), rather than the street walker
that the modern mind imagines) advertised herself
through her clothing and make up. Some of these
women wore blue faience beaded fish-net
dresses. They painted their lips red, and tat-
tooed themselves on the breasts or thighs
and even went around totally nude. There is no
evidence that these women were paid for these
fertility-related acts, so some believe that word
‹prostitute› is probably an incorrect term for these
women. In fact, the Victorian era theory that these
women were prostitutes is not backed up by evidence
at all. All archaeological evidence for women with
such tattoos shows them to have been New
Kingdom female musicians or dancers.
Another idea pointed by Daniel Kolos, an Egyp-
tologist academically trained at the University of
Toronto, is that this premarital sexual activity might
be a prerequisite for marriage. One of the the-
ories that disassociates these women from
being prostitutes, is that their sexual activity
could be part of a “coming-of-age ritual”, just
as circumcision was one for males. With
Egypt’s heavy emphasis on fertility as the
defining nature of a man or a woman, this
idea is a highly likely probability.
Other theories could be that the young
virgin girls joined itinerant performing
groups - dancers, singers and the like - and
during their time with these groups they
experienced their first sexual encounters. If
a girl became pregnant, she would probably leave the
troupe to head home to her family with proof of her
fertility. (Motherhood was venerated, giving a woman
a much higher status in society, so pregnancy was
something to be proud of in ancient Egypt.)
These travelling groups of women were strongly
linked with midwifery and childbirth-related de-
ities. The goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Meskhen-
et and Heqet disguised themselves as itinerant
performers, travelling with the god Khnum as their
porter. Carrying the sistrum and
menat
instruments
- instruments with sexual overtones - they showed it
to Rawoser, the expectant father. Knowing that his
wife, Raddjedet, was having a very difficult labor, he
told these women - the disguised goddesses - about
his wife’s troubles, and at their offer of help, he let
them in to see her.
These women do not seem to be pay-for-sex prosti-
tutes, instead they seem to be a link with the divine, a
helper of expectant mothers and singers, dancers and
musicians. This is not to say that there were no pay-
for-sex prostitutes in ancient Egypt, it just that there is
little evidence of this found. Considering Egypt’s very
different image of sexuality, the modern concept of
both sexuality and prostitution do not fit this ancient
society. Women operated under a totally different
cultural imperative than women today, thus ancient
Egyptian sexuality must be looked at without modern
prejudices. It seems that these female performers,
these ‘prostitutes’, were treated with courtesy and
respect, and there seemed to be a well-established
link between these travelling performers and fertility,
FEBRUARY 2018 -
SEXY GLAM
MAGAZINE -
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